Charlotte McGuffey, a Christian Scientist housewife in the 1950's, tells her husband she wants a divorce days before his death in a car accident. The rest of the novel plays out around her efforts to look for answers about his death (and her own place in life) as she and her two young boys (one clearly autistic) relocate to the family summer home where her husband met his end. As she tries to connect the dots of her own troubled life, a charming rogue of an artist comes into her life, further complicating her life. It also further complicates a sort of aimless story that only partially redeems itself with a conclusion that focuses on Charlotte's hidden strengths coming to the fore when they're most needed. But for the most part, this is a fairly meandering story with too many aspects, each of which might have made for a simpler and better story on their own. ( )

This book follows Charlotte McGuffey as she learns more about herself following the death of her husband. The most moving part in the story was the refusal of the mother and the sister to get treatment for curable diseases when they were dying because of their beliefs (they were christian scientists). The deaths of these two characters and the reaization thast her son has autism lead Charlotte to reconsider and eventually renounce her faith. She realizes and accepts that there are problems in the world. This makes her stronger and enables her to grow and find a new love. At the end there was an ironoic twist about the son's autism. ( )